A Sheltering Tree

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

There are so very few things more valuable and sustaining than a good friend

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What!” You Too? I thought I was the only one.” (C.S Lewis)

I like this too.

“As long as there is a post and the telephone is not cut off, so long as we have things to tell and joys and anxieties to share – we will be friends.” (Marion C. Garretty)

I have to say I’ve been truly blessed with amazing friends and lately I’ve been reminded of it again. Some friends – a very few – are the “for life” kind that say with actions more than words “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay” (Ruth 1:1-6)

Some are friends for a time and for a season – the value of the friendship not lessened by the length of time you are together or the changes in circumstances that take you apart. Friendships aren’t defined or diminished by those sort of things. They take all shapes and forms but at the core of great friendship is acceptance and trust and truth telling and love. A knitting of hearts, a knowing, a walking together.

And isn’t it when your in a little bit of a pickle (or a big one) that you really notice it the most – that you most appreciate how good and true your friends are. Friends so generous in their time and their conversation and their giving and doing. Friends that completely have your back. So much so that you think you don’t deserve it, that your tempted to refuse because it’s much more than most would do and more than we think we are worth.

But in the end it’s that love that seals the deal. It’s where hearts really join.

And these kind of friends show us Jesus.

See we don’t deserve His love and we certainly don’t deserve His favour. Yet Jesus has given both to us anyway. Unconditionally. In fact He pours it out on us. And as much as we would like to, we can’t earn it and we can’t pay Him back – it’s different to how the world works – in the end we have to simply accept it as God’s gift.

Faithful friends remind us of that. That we are loved and accepted at our best and at our worst and everywhere in between.

At our worst – friends stay. Jesus does too.

And friends go further. I love this bible story where a group of friends carry their companion on his bed to be healed by Jesus and not being able to get through the crowd they climb up on the roof top and lower him down that way – right into Jesus’ presence. (Luke 5:17-19) That was some ingenious thinking. Faithful friends do that – they go that bit or that whole lot extra, they don’t think about what’s a reasonable length to go, they just go further. They take you to Jesus.

We ease the way for each other and staighten the path, we help each other up, we make each other laugh. And isn’t everything more fun when you have a friend to share it with.

So lets not underplay the value of good old fashioned friendship and lets not underestimate how many women in our very own communities – yes even with Facebook – are dying for a good and loyal friend to walk beside them – some who have never seen how true friendship works. Some battered and bruised by bullying “friends” who take more than they give, who expose and compete and point the finger. We know God has a better way – friendship that serves and protects and inspires. We can do that. Us girls are designed for it.

If being a friend is the all you have to give today – – your giving Jesus.

Not a drop in the ocean, no small thing. Your friendship – a safe harbour, a sheltering tree, a soft place to rest a while.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 30-31

And just to finish.

“Make new friends and keep the old. Some are silver and the other is gold. A circle is round…it has no end. That’s how long I want to be your friend ~ Girl Scout Song